Sweden's centre-right leader asked to form a government (or at least give it his best shot)

Andreas Norlén, left, and Ulf Kristersson. Photo: Fredrik Persson/TT

Published: 02.Oct.2018 15:13 hrs

The speaker of the Swedish parliament has asked Ulf Kristersson, leader of the centre-right Moderate party, to try to form a government.

Sweden's September 9th election left the two main blocs separated by just one seat. Arriving at a compromise has proved difficult, and the first round of talks last week didn't break the deadlock.

After meeting the party leaders for a second round of talks on Tuesday, newly-elected speaker Andreas Norlén put forward Kristersson as his proposal for who should be in charge of forming a government.

With recent high-profile shootings, you'd think Malmö was in the middle of a crime wave. But according to preliminary official statistics, 2018 saw the lowest number of crimes reported in the city in 17 years. READ